‘Ed, we won’t let you down’: Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent remembered for compassion at state funeral

Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent — a widely respected figure described as a “giant” of Canadian politics by one of his former rivals — will be laid to rest today in a state funeral in Ottawa.

Broadbent, who led the NDP for 14 years and through four elections, died on Jan. 11 at the age of 87.

The ceremony will be held at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre in Ottawa starting at 4 p.m. ET. CBC News will carry the funeral live.

State funerals are usually limited to current and former governors general, prime ministers and cabinet ministers, but a sitting prime minister can order one for any eminent Canadian.

In announcing a state funeral for Broadbent, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) called him a “much-loved national figure” and said he was being honoured for “shaping the country’s political landscape.”

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Broadbent is just the second opposition leader in Canadian history — and the first who did not die while still in office — to be given a state funeral. Former prime minister Stephen Harper offered Jack Layton’s family a state funeral after the NDP leader died at age 61 in August 2011, following a battle with cancer.

Current NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and longtime NDP strategist Brian Topp are expected to speak at the funeral, according to Canadian Heritage officials. Government representatives and dignitaries, members of the public, former colleagues, close friends and family members also will be in attendance.

At the request of the family, there will be no lying in state.

Born in Oshawa, Ont., Broadbent spent nearly a quarter of a century in the House of Commons and remained active in public policy afterwards by launching the Broadbent Institute policy think-tank.

While leading the NDP from 1975-1989, Broadbent focused on pocketbook issues and pushed his party to a then-unprecedented first place in the polls, making the NDP a politically viable alternative to the Liberal and Conservative parties.

In the 1988 election — a bitter campaign fought over the free trade deal — he pushed the party to the brink of a breakthrough with 43 seats. That made Broadbent the NDP’s most successful leader ever — a title he’d hold until Layton’s “orange wave” election in 2011.

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney, one of Broadbent’s chief political opponents in the 1980s, called him a “giant in the Canadian political scene.”

“He would have been prime minister if he had been leading any other party,” he told CBC’s Power & Politics on the day of Broadbent’s passing.

Mulroney said Broadbent was “extremely pleasant” but also a “tough and strong debater.”

“I consider him a great parliamentarian and a major contributor to Canadian progress during the decade and a half we were together,” he said.

Broadbent acted as an elder statesman for the NDP

After failing to realize his dream of forming the Official Opposition, Broadbent stepped down in 1989. But he was lured back more than a decade later by Layton and won the Ottawa Centre riding in 2004.

He did not seek re-election due to the worsening health of his wife. Lucille Broadbent died of breast cancer in 2006.

He remained a respected elder statesman for the NDP and, along with former prime minister Jean Chrétien, helped to negotiate the formal coalition agreement between the Liberals and the New Democratic Party to replace Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2008. The coalition talks died after Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean prorogued Parliament at Harper’s request in December 2008.

Singh called Broadbent “a lifelong champion of our movement and our party” and a personal mentor.

“I have often said that Ed was who I wanted to be when I grew up. He taught me about leadership and how to turn political principle into actions that helped improve the lives of Canadians,” he said.

Bob Rae, once an NDP MP under Broadbent and now Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the former leader had an attribute often missing from politics: kindness.

“The thing he believed in more than anything else was decency. He was a decent guy. He treated people fairly,” Rae told CBC’s Power & Politics.